The Church of Compromised Loyalty: Part 5 - Revelation 2: 24-29

2:47It's kind of like an earthquake. When there is movement of the tectonic plates underneath your feet, there's very little that you can do except. Hold on. In fact, maybe holding on is not good because what you're holding on to may come down. And certainly, if you're looking at the Pacific rim, what is known as the ring of fire, quakes are often followed by tsunamis. And so when the earth begins to shake underneath your feet, there is certainly in those regions a feeling of powerlessness and helplessness.

3:36I feel the same as I look around our church landscape and denominational compromises that are taking place during our times. Like it's much like being in an earthquake. The tectonic plates of worldly philosophy seem to be colliding with that of biblical truth, and there's a shaking that's taking place. And just as we can feel perhaps helpless in an earthquake as the rumblings take place, so I think we can also feel very helpless as we witness churches and entire denominations compromise truth on a massive scale. We're even seeing this, the rumblings of that even in our own denominations, and certainly in our own church association. I hear it.

4:32That speaks of the ugliness of our times. I remember, I think I told you, years ago, I had lunch with a prominent Jewish rabbi in our area, and as we sat down for lunch, he said this to me: he said, You are a white male who believes the Bible. You are the epitome of evil in this society. And I thought, well, don't think a Torah-believing Jew has it much better. But it does articulate something. I would add one more: I am a white, straight male that believes the Bible is true.

5:30You talk about putting me in some isolated circles. Well, that's quite a few of them. But what's happening in our world as I look around, there is a whole approach to Scripture that is aimed at undermining, let me say, obliterating biblical. Christianity from the American church. I feel the effectiveness. And think about it: being white, okay, well, if people want to pull out my whiteness, then it's then that puts me, that isolates me from every other ethnic group. People want to highlight my straightness or biblical commitment to biblical sexuality, then that puts me at odds with everyone who has a different idea of sexuality. If you want to highlight the fact that I'm a male, that sets me at odds with more than half people.

6:46If you want to highlight the fact that I believe the Bible, well, this puts me at odds with even a greater number. And I do. I can't help any of these. I believe the Bible is true. And I can't simply change that. I believe it. When Peter had made his confession, he came to understand who Jesus was. And as people were defecting from him, Jesus asked them, his disciples, are you two going to leave? He said, no, we've come to believe that you have the words of life, and there isn't any other words of life out there. The same is true.

7:46I believe there are no words of life other than that that is revealed in Scripture. I cannot just simply change my mind and say they're not true because they are true, and I've come to believe that. And this shapes who I am. I think a lot of my pastoral friends, even in our own association, don't understand what's happening. There is a new approach to reading the Bible. They don't seem to have the hermeneutical sense to come in out of the rain.

8:29There is an approach to Scripture that is being advocated across this land and across the world that seeks to obliterate biblical Christianity. I mean, some of them are well-meaning. Want to be open-minded? I get that, but some of them are not. Some of them know exactly what they're doing. Some of them are more paying more attention to the politics than they are to the truth. They're paying more attention to cultural relevance than proclaiming biblical truth and its application.

9:23They're more interested in the esteem of man rather than the esteem of the Christ revealed in Scripture. Well, such is the compromise of our time. And I admit, I feel a bit helpless as I watch these tectonic movements taking place in American evangelicalism and across the world. What do you do? What do I do? And you may say to me, well, you're a pastor. At least you can say something. I'm a housewife. I'm a kid. If you feel powerless, how much more should I feel powerless?

10:10Such is the ugliness of our times. But such also was the ugliness of the church in Thyratira's time. And today we're going to look at the message to the faithful at Thyratira. What do you do when the tectonic plates are? Moving underneath your feet. What is Christ's command for you to do? Well, we have that in our text this morning. There are those in Thyratira who are in a seemingly powerless situation amongst what we could legitimately call gross denominational compromise of their times. We're facing it.

11:02Who am I? Who are we? What are we to do in the midst of all this? Well, we have a clear answer in our passage this morning. And I want to keep reading. Passage this morning. I'll pick up in verse 24. But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyratira, who do not hold to this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan as they call them, I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come. He who overcomes, and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces. Pieces, as I also have received authority from my Father, and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Well, in our passage this morning, Jesus gives an exhortation, and then he follows it up with some promises to the faithful who are in Thyratira. And I want us to understand Jesus's exhortation and his promises to the faithful so that we will please him in our response to the compromise of our times. So that's where we're going. I'm going to look at the exhortation and then the promises, if time allows.

12:46First, let's look at the exhortation, Christ's exhortation to the faithful, beginning in verse 24. Let me just read these to you. But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyratira, who do not hold to this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan as they call them, I place no other burden upon you. Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come. And in verses 24 and 25, there are really four marks of the faithful. We'll come to the exhortation in just a moment, but as we journey through these words, I want you to. To see four marks of the faithful, because the first thing he does is he describes the faithful. Who are the faithful? It's a good question. What do the faithful look like in that context? So we can understand a little bit about what faithfulness looks like in our context.

13:47Well, four marks. First, look at verse 24. The faithful are marked by what they do not do. They are marked by what they do not do. It's true in every age. Look at verse 24. But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyratira who do not hold to this teaching, there are those who were holding on to the teaching of Jezebel. There were those who were espousing, defending, and participating in her theology and in her practice and in her way of life. And then there were those who just did not buy it. They were not going along. They would not participate in what we have laid out and understood as the trade guild idolatry. Every trade, every profession there in Thyratira had their own little trade guild God, and much of their work and life centered around worship, feasts to the God, and the sexual immorality that accompanied them. So they would not. They were marked by what they would not do. They would not. Participate in the idolatry of the workplace of their time, nor the sexual immorality of the workplace of their time.

15:11But I love how this, how Jesus starts this literal translation, beginning of verse 24, but y'all, but y'all. We have, what we have here is nothing short for all you linguistics, the Paleo-Texan script. To y'all. Now, of course, they migrated from there, and now they're here among Techno. Just kidding. But to y'all, to you, to all of you, I am saying, to those who do not hold to this teaching, to this practice, to this way of life, to the idolatry and to the sexual immorality that accompanies the idolatry as espoused by this voice called Jezebel.

16:08But the same is true today. You can always tell a Christian in the workplace by what they do not do. It's not hard. It's oftentimes what they do not do that gives them away. Same is true of our age. We are called to be a separate, distinct people, so we do not go along. With the idolatry of our times and the sexual immorality of our times, and if we do, we repent. There is a trajectory away from these things. As we grow in sanctification, there is movement to Christ-likeness. And so the faithful are marked by what they do not do.

16:52Second mark of the faithful in Thyratira. They're marked by their innocence. They're marked by their innocence. Look back at the second phrase in verse 24: who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them. There are those who had not known the deep things of Satan. There were those, as they call them, the they. There are those who are exploring the deep things of Satan, who are espousing the deep things of Satan. They are pushing the envelope. They are plumbing the depths. They are immersing themselves.

17:39That's one category who is that category of people are following Jezebel. But then there are those who do not. They do not know the deep things. They are marked by their innocence. What are the Deep things of Satan. It's a good question. A lot of people have made a lot of speculation as to what it could be referring to there. The word for deep is the same word for the deep well that you remember Jesus in John chapter 4 meets a woman at the well, and the well is deep. There's the same word here, the deep things of Satan.

18:33And I can't be too specific about what this is, but we can certainly get into the ballpark. We can get into the ballpark, and we can do so by what's taken place much during the second century as people like Irenaeus write books and arguments, one called against heresies. So the heresies that come about or dealt with in print in the second century certainly had their beginnings in the first century, and we're seeing some of that in our text this morning. There is this idea of this whole Gnostic religion, the whole Gnostic thinking. I'll talk a little bit more about that, emerges. We already talked about that in 1st, 2, and 3rd John. There is a Gnosticism that starts beginning to see the foundations of it here. But this much I can be confident of: is that these deep things of Satan certainly involve what we might call today many of the tenets of liberation theology?

19:53You take modern-day liberation theology, put it in its first-century context, you're going to have some of the same thoughts. And what is liberation theology? What is the general thought is that the oppressed need to be delivered from the oppressor. And this oppressor takes different forms throughout the ages: white, straight, biblical believing, male, whatever, and through the ages, all kinds others. But I can assure you that biblical truth was there before whiteness, before modern sexual movements, before modern inclusive movements and philosophy of our times. Certainly it was around in their day as well. The oppressor may take on the form of government. The oppressor may take on the form of religion or a certain people or ideology. Even Christianity. And the oppressor is the problem. And the Savior is the one who overthrows the oppressor. Even as we minister in El Salvador now, we minister in the aftermath of a civil war and what that did to the churches and those who sided with the guerrillas who adopted a very intense liberation theology stance to overthrow. And it comes down to the ages. There's an early group back at the time that this was written, called the Ophites. They were what we'd call an early Gnostic group that emerged during this time, and they despised the God of the Old Testament, the God of the Old Testament. And they came to worship the serpent instead of the God of the Old Testament because they saw the serpent as the great liberator of humanity. And Irenaeus and others are going to deal with this group early on.

22:20But the idea is that God, the God of the Old Testament, did not want people to. To understand the difference between good and evil, in comes the serpent, the great liberator, so that mankind can understand the difference between good and evil. And so, in their convoluted way of thinking, the snake, the Ophites, Ophis, snake, becomes the great liberator and the object of worship. Other groups, same time, championed their freedom to explore the depths of Satan's rule. And so, their thinking followed similar lines like this. They claimed that they had a higher knowledge than that of the apostles, and they asserted that really anything done in the flesh is harmless and unreal. There is no such thing as these idols. We know that what happens to the flesh cannot really touch the soul, and therefore one could participate in fleshly things with the flesh and remain clean and pure. And this because they have a higher knowledge. And this is what Gnosticism gnosis, knowing more, if you have this higher knowledge, this secret knowledge, and that's going to show up through the centuries, but this idea if you have this secret knowledge, it will give you a license to do what those who don't have that knowledge can do.

24:00Well, and these thoughts early on in these centuries coalesced into the idea that flesh itself is inherently evil and that the spirit good. And this lends itself to the idea that even Jesus didn't, the Son of God didn't come in the flesh, he only appeared in the flesh, and this gives rise to fool Gnosticism that is going to be dealt with in the early church councils. But as you boil it all down, the common thinking among these groups was that the morality of apostolic Christianity was too oppressive. That's the bottom line. Too oppressive.

24:48They're prudes, moralists. And here's the word, legalists. They were oppressors. And so, seeing those who held to apostolic Christianity, they became the oppressors. And this whole school of thought, and Jezebel and her cronies and her children, her disciples, were very good at leading the church. And it probably wasn't just one body. It was much bigger than that, probably several, more like a denominational association. And so they felt. Free to explore the depths of evil. But the faithful are marked by innocence.

25:41They are growing in a direction of innocence. They're not growing in a way of understanding evil and its ways. They're growing in the knowledge and exposure of what and exposing evil. They're not exploring the depths. They don't think that way. They're not, how far can I get to the end? How far can I cross the line? How, I want to, I have a heart that wants to sin. They're not going that way. They're going the other way.

26:29They're marked by innocence. And oh, I pray today. I pray that God would give us young people like this today who are marked by innocence, who are moving in a direction not of exploring the deep things of Satan or the ways of the world, but are moving the other ways. Oh, that God would give us a church of people like this. That's the heartbeat of Christ here. This is who the faithful. Are in Thyratira, and this is who the faithful are today.

27:06Well, there's a third mark of the faithful. They're marked by the burden they carry. They are marked by the burden they carry. Look back, verse 24. But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyratira, who do not hold to this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan as they call them, I place no other burden on you. Now, if Jesus says, I place no other burden on you, he is recognizing that there is a burden on them. What is the burden they carry? That's a question, a lot of speculation, and I'm not going to run all the scenarios, but I'll say it simply like this. The burden they carry certainly involves the burden of being identified with Christ.

28:02They had to endure the wrath of man. They would have to. They're identified with Christ, and they bear the burden of being identified with Christ and bearing the wrath of man. And choosing to abstain from Jezebel's theology and way of life inevitably opened them up to ridicule. You Christians, you legalists, you whatever. But it also opened them up to employment hardships. The trade guilds were characterized by idolatry, the feasts, and all the social pressures that went along with it. So their life inevitably opened them up, being identified with Christ, inevitably opened them up to ridicule, employment hardships, social pressures, and all other kinds.

29:08But it's important to understand the same language, Jesus says, I am throwing on you no other burden. If you look back at verse 22, he uses the same verb to what he's doing with Jezebel. He's throwing her on a deathbed, on her deathbed. You see, Jezebel and her followers are going to have to face the wrath of Christ. But Christ's followers are not going to have to deal with the wrath of Christ. That's what he bought. That's what he removed. And yet, for a while, we will have to face the wrath of man. Even in the church, sometimes.

29:58Even When the churches participate in global kind of compromise, listen, all of us are going to face either the wrath of Christ or we're going to face the wrath of man. By all means, there is no comparison. The wrath of man is brief, but for a short time. Wrath of Christ is for eternal. Flee to Christ. All of this is given, all of this message is given to us so that we would flee to Christ and endure the trials and tribulations of being identified with Him.

30:44Well, look at verse 25. We come to the exhortation, the exhortation. Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come. Hold fast to what I come. And from this, we can see a fourth mark of the faithful. Who are they? They are marked by what they do. They are marked by what they don't do. They are marked by their innocence. They are marked by the burden they carry. But they are also marked by what they do, specifically what they do.

31:22What do they do? They are holding fast to the Christ, the apostles. Proclaimed. That's who they are, holding fast. A literal reading. Y'all be holding to that which you have received. Or, in other words, y'all be holding on to that which y'all have grasped. You've got to get that paleo-Texan in there, but it's very descriptive. You, plural, be holding on to that which you, plural, have grasped, which you have taken hold on. This shouldn't be too difficult for Texans to understand. Every once in a while, I see that bumper sticker that says, you'll get my gun from me when you get it from my what? Cold, dead fingers. What does that mean? Holding on to the very end, correct? Well, that's the idea here, that grasp, that entrenched holding on grasp.

32:42They are holding fast to the Christ revealed in Scripture. There is no way for them to depart. They believe He has the words of life. They have accepted the testimony, and they believe they hold on. They hold on to the Christ the apostles proclaimed and all that goes with that. The sum total of Christian teaching, Christian hope, Christian life, Christian privilege, they are holding on to that. They are not holding on to the teaching of Jezebel or any other theological fad that may come and go throughout the church age.

33:33Fads are going to come and go, but the faithful hold on. That's what they do. They hold on to the truth. They hold on to that sum total of Christian doctrine. And the idea of holding fast involves a mental confidence. They are confident in its truth. They believe the gospel. They are looking for reasons to believe. They are not looking for reasons not to believe. They think differently because there is a new nature. They are born from above. This is the way they think. This is the way they operate. They believe. And as believers, they look for reasons to believe. They are growing in their grasp.

34:23That's what the faithful do. They're not just hanging on by a thread. Oh, I hope I can get through this. No, believers. Hold on. That's Christ's exhortation. What do you do when the tectonic movements of theological systems seem to be all against biblical Christianity? What do you do? You hold fast. That's what you do. We don't have to change the course of our denomination. We have to hold fast. And in our holding fast, Christ will do his work.

35:07It's very simple, isn't it? He wants, Christ has made it plain to us that he wants his people holding on to the truth that they have received. His people are the faithful. And so, after exhorting the faithful to believe or to continue to be faithful, Jesus goes on to further encourage them by the promise of great reward. So Jesus makes some promises to the faithful, and these are incredible. Look at verse 26: He who overcomes. And he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from my Father, and I will give him the morning star. Incredible. You read Psalm 2 a little bit earlier. And what Jesus does with Psalm 2 and who he applies, the principle of Psalm 2 will shake your world.

36:49And it will give us a glimpse into the judgment that's going to play out in the future. I hate to do this. But I have in my notes, if it's past 11:35 at this time, I need to stop because I don't want to rush through what Jesus does here. I don't want to rush through these rewards and these promises. So we're going to, I'll leave it there. But it's bringing you back to this concept of what do you do when you feel powerless over anything, whether it's your marriage, whether it's your situation at school, whether it's any kind of relation, or whether it's your church, whether it's the denomination, whether it's the political environment, whatever it may be. What do you do when you just get these feelings of helplessness? You see some major movements, tectonic plate movements happening around you, and you feel so small. What do you do? You hold fast. You hold fast. Hold fast to the truth of the Christ of Scripture. Hold fast to the Christian hope. Let that characterize you. Let that shape you. Be marked by what you don't do. Be marked by your innocence. Be marked, grow in your ability to navigate the ways of sanctification and choosing and distinguishing between what is right and wrong. But above all that, be marked by what you do, by holding fast. And know that God is going to accomplish His purpose in our day, in our time, just like He did at Thyratira and beyond.

39:00Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you just thanking you for your goodness, for the truth revealed in your word. We thank you that you gave this message to this church in Thyratira, and by virtue you speak to the churches, not just the church at Thyratira, not just the seven churches of Revelation, but to all the churches you are speaking. Father, we want to be active about doing those things that you want us to be doing. And thank you for just such a sobering, simple reminder of what we are to be doing in the midst of a world of compromise and even compromise that hits way too close to home. Father, we thank you. We thank you. And we look forward to walking in your ways. Go with us now in Jesus' name. Amen.